10 Years Later: How GameCube and Xbox Defined The Current Gen

PlayStation 2 may have dominated last generation, but its competitors set the stage for this one.

No one would challenge the claim that Sony's PlayStation 2 was the decisive victor of the sixth generation of consoles, that nebulous post-32/64-bit era that never lent itself to an easily applied label. Not only was the PS2 the best-selling contender last generation, it remains the best-selling console ever, having moved more than 150 million systems worldwide and an unbelievable 1.5 billion pieces of software. Combined, its competitors -- Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube, both of which debuted within days of one another back in November 2001 -- didn't even manage half of that.

The PS2 achieved a near-NES-level rout, dominating the market and forcing the competition to scramble to find other strategies. Yet where the NES had a clear successor in the Super NES, in many ways the PlayStation 3 feels like a follow-up in name only. Few of the series that defined last generation's most popular console have much traction these days, or else they've gone multiplatform. PS2 overwhelmed its rivals through a combination of perfect timing, a diverse but focused feature set, and a competitive price; PS3 blew what should have been a strong launch with a soft lineup and an excessively high price made necessary by Sony's desire to make it an all-in-one media center -- and in its quest to "only do everything," the PS3 has never really defined what it does best. Five years later, the system is hardly a failure; rather, it's essentially splitting the market with Microsoft's Xbox 360, which is a far cry from the total domination both of its predecessors enjoyed. Meanwhile, neither can hope to match the lifetime sales of Nintendo's Wii, the little white box that became a dark horse juggernaut.

In other words, PlayStation 2 defined the last generation of consoles. But its rivals, GameCube and Xbox, have defined the current generation.

Nintendo GameCube

First, let's consider the GameCube. At launch, Nintendo's fourth console was an impressively powerful machine. Sony had all but forced Sega out of the market with its relentless assault of hype for the PlayStation 2's purported power -- and indeed, the PS2 could produce considerably nicer graphics than Sega's Dreamcast. But it was no match for GameCube's visual capabilities. In the hands of capable, motivated developers, the GameCube could produce visuals to rival those on Xbox; comparisons between like titles such as Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Halo 2 ultimately boil down to a matter of personal taste rather than technical prowess.

The problem that hobbled GameCube was that few capable, motivated developers chose to pour their resources into GameCube. At its best, the system was a marvel... but it was rarely at its best. Nintendo's relations with third parties had slowly dwindled away during the Nintendo 64 years, as few developers wanted to work in the limited bounds of the console's incredibly expensive cartridges; and while GameCube saw Nintendo finally making the change to optical discs, their decision to go with a proprietary mini-DVD format offering far less storage capacity than its competitors' systems suggested that the company had become an old dog, reluctant to adopt new tricks.

At the same time, Nintendo had fallen victim to an echo-chamber effect. Because family-friendly titles like Mario and Pokémon had become Nintendo's bread-and-butter, gamers increasingly perceived its systems as being for children. The GameCube's physical design certainly didn't do much to combat this perspective, with its colorful purple plastic shell and bizarre, purse-like carrying handle. And when Nintendo unveiled the toon-shaded The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the visual excellence of the game was almost completely lost amidst the collective outcry of old-time fans feeling bereaved and abandoned by the company they'd grown up following. As the perception that Nintendo was for kids grew, more and more gamers bought into that idea and turned to other, "more mature" systems. Publishers in turn followed suit, reserving their prime content for PlayStation 2 (and occasionally Xbox).

This isn't to suggest GameCube was completely bereft of worthwhile, unique content; in addition to the usual first-party brilliance -- and even Wind Waker was a superb game regardless of its cartoonish surface -- Nintendo forged deals with a few publishers to enrich the platform with exclusives. The so-called "Capcom Five" ended up becoming the "Capcom Four" as GameCube's market share dwindled and Dead Phoenix was cancelled, but the collaboration nevertheless resulted in the masterful Resident Evil 4 and cult classic Killer 7. Both games appeared on other systems, but the GameCube versions are still the definitive releases. Also, after half a decade of acrimony, Nintendo and Square healed their old wounds and collaborated on Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Not only did it return the name Final Fantasy to a NIntendo platform after the series' becoming a prize Sony system-seller, it also gave purpose to Nintendo's unpopular "connectivity" concept.

Comments (69)

Couldn't have said it better....

myself. "Yet where the NES had a clear successor in the Super NES, in many ways the PlayStation 3 feels like a follow-up in name only" This completely sums up the PS3, it simply is not the advancement that the PS2 was over the PSX. Whereas the 360 and Wii took several steps forward from the last console gen.

Did I miss something...

Did this article actually explain how the Gamecube and Xbox defined the current generation of consoles? Sure, it points out that both Nintendo and Microsoft learned from their mistakes, but are there any aspects of these consoles that truly had profound effects on the evolution of video games?

System hierarchy

As far as how games looked, and having lived through that generation and activiely read reviews and comparisons and game magazines. XBOX>GC>Dreamcast>PS2. Sure sometimes the game was similar but the vast majority of the games that was the case. Ok flame on!

I got to disagree.

As much as I love the DC, it was more like XB>GC>PS2>DC. And yeah, quite a few games were the exception from this rule, but the DC didn't win out compared to the PS2. Unless it was a 2d fighter or shooter and then the DC owns.

Gamecube controller.

For me personally the gamecube controller was one of the best I ever played with. It fit comfortably and ergonimcally in my hands and to this day I can't enjoy the Dual Shock on my PS3 after having played on Gamecube. To me it refined the N64 design. I still can't stand hitting the L/R buttons on a dual shock. The Nintendo Z and shoulder buttons always felt comfortable on Gamecube. I realize alot of that though is personal preference I supose.

PS2 Had better graphics than Dreamcast??????

I don't know what the author was smoking here but the Dreamcast had better graphics than the PS2 and was a more powerful machine hardware wise. Had better online connectivity as well. Except for the amount of games and user base support the Dreamcast was a better machine in everyway. Well PS2 could play DVD's. Which is probrably what sold it for the masses.

Actually, both of you are mostly right.

For a decent time, the Dreamcast looked better than the PS2, especially early on in the PS2 lifespan. One only has to look at something like Dead or Alive 2 to see the difference. There was a distinct problem with anti-aliasing on the PS2 at that time, not to mention the difficulty in coding for the system. It took a good while for devs to really tap into that power.

The gap between the two systems, initially, was almost non-existent, and it didn't widen as much as one would think during the remaining life of the Dreamcast.

Dreamcast and PS2

Early in the PS2's life, many Dreamcast games looked better than even the PS2's best - probably because the PS2 was harder to program for. But time has shown that the PS2 is the more powerful system. I don't know any Dreamcast games that look nearly as good as Metal Gear Solid 3 or God of War.

God of War 3 could have been done on Dreamcast.

Shenmeu looked better than most stuff on PS2. Soul Calibur 2. The 2k sports games looked better. Rez and the space channel 5 games took a hit coming to the PS2. God of War could have been done on the Dreamcast. And I got the original God of War, it doean't hold up too well today (The original not HD remake.) I know the PS2 had a higher Mhz but the dreamcast was 128 bit and had higher bandwidth. I'm sure there is a comparison on computation power out there somewhere but the PS2 was not more powerful than the DC. The Gamecube barely beat out the Dreamcast in graphics.

Why so slanted?

What a terribly slanted artical. How about the fact that one of the most pervasive elements of the current gen is motion gaming which the ps2 had and these other two did not? I think you could have easily forumulated this article to include Sony in a capacity aside from negative and been a little less hypocritical in your views of Nintendo and you might have had a decent article worth my time. Instead you wasted it with this garbage... and this from someone who knows the importance of filler pieces like this.

10 Minutes Later: How I Wanted My 10 Minutes Back.

Xbox Live

Where is Xbox Live in this article? If you're going to talk about something that defined consoles then Xbox Live is the biggest thing worth mentioning about the original Xbox. It completely changed the way we play multiplayer on consoles and is only getting bigger. Not to mention the downloadable contant which has really taken off this generation.

Gamecube: Last Nintendo System That Was About Something!

I liked the GC, although I did not buy it. The design and the small discs were turn-offs. In fact - I sat out that entire generation because I was lost after buying the Sega Saturn and then the Dreamcast and I felt like I threw money away. I did not want to take a chance on another system. I in turn, truend to PC gaming. Since most of the games on that generation were availble on the PC, I dealt with that. The graphic effects were better anyway. I played my Madden, GTA etc. on the PC.

The Gamecube did have serious graphics, but the ONLY reason their graphics were better is because the GC had HARDWARE texture decompression which allowed for better quality textures. I will bet that the only reason the GC had this feature was to compensate for the lack of storage space.

Don't forget Multi-Texturing

That is not the only reason. The GameCube also offered Multi-Texturing which the PS2 didn't offer. Without multi-texturing, bumpmaps/normalmaps would force the scene to be completely (!) redrawn for every texture. (Like that: If you got a normalmapped texture, the PS2 would have to redraw the scene three times. 1. Regular Texture, 2. Normalmap, 3. Glossmap/Stainmap) With multi-texturing, it just does it like that in one sweep, resulting in much better graphics without losing any fps. It's a shame that only very few developers used that technique on the GameCube. It was pretty popular on the Xbox, though.

you are right

Ps2 had the most success as a multimedia platform even though the other consoles did curtain gaming stuff better. The reason i got PS2 because of the DVD player, which was good, and loads of different series (burnout one of my favs). Xbox had better internet service and GC had better controller (IMO) and better graphics.

i think PS2 should have been on this article but it would have been more than 5 pages and i'd prefred not to read that much

Read more.

Check your history

I would like to point out that I did own all 3 systems in that generation all of which I enjoyed for their varying strengths that they brought to the table. Anyways between those 3 systems the Xbox was the first to offer HD gaming, an ethernet port and a HDD the latter 2 of which was standard on all XBox consoles (still remember playing countless 16 player deathmatches of Halo with friends on the weekends) unlike the PS2 (which I still loved btw) which relied on memory cards until a HDD was released in order to be able to play FFXI and a few other games and also it was necessary to buy the network adapter(until the redesign) to play online just like the Gamecube did bc neither of these systems came standard with either one of those features.

nExtincion is a bit slow

first off the article is on xbox and gamecube because its the 10 year anniversary of their releases, not ps2 idiot. The article has nothing to do with being a fanboy, but obviously your dumb comment is. You must check your facts as well because the ps2 never was able to put out true hd graphic, xbox was the only system of last generation to do so. Also the xbox shipped with 4 controller ports, an ethernet port, and a hard drive, none of which the ps2 shipped with at all, they were all sold seperately to catch up to the xbox. Im not trying to hate on ps2, but xbox was a much better machine. Its a shame that developers and publishers were just more comfortable with the brand playstation or else the xbox wouldnt have been such an underdog. Ps2 library of games was the only advantage it ever had. People like to complain about paying for xbox live, but its truly worth it, and its only the cost of one game for a whole year, which if u already own a system and games, it shouldnt be breaking your budget. Xbox does everything better, and for those who missed out on the original xbox, there was a ton of exclusive games that could rival alot of the ps2 exclusives. Ive owned all the systems, and im not trying to say that any of them are weak or worthless, but xbox is the leader in my own opinion.

PS2 not HD.

All 3 systems were not in HD. Later when PS2 started supporting 480p games in widescree it wasn't even really native as you had to enter something before the game to set the output I believe? And I don't think PS2 was first on alot of those things you mentioned. I'm pretty sure actually PS2 had zeroe online connectivity when it first came out and that I was playing with my broadband adapter on Dreamcast way before PS2 had it.

some more info for you...

Anyone remember this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panasonic_Q A fully lisenced copy of the GC which for all intents and purposes, was essentially a DVD player that could play GC games...in a lookalike GC chassis. It was never released here in the UK and Panasonic sent it to the grave after two years, as it was cheaper to buy a GC and a DVD player separately.

Still, the GC gave me some of my most prominent memories of video games over the past 10 years. For all its shortcomings, The Wind Waker was one of my favourite games, completed it once and then again in Link's Outset Island robes, and the ability to read the Hyrulian text. Pikmin 1 and 2 were simply masterpieces, Super Monkey Ball 2 offered so much replay value with me and my friends that I still play it quite often. Its just a shame about the recent incarnations of the games in the later series (come on Sega and AV!!). We all know how short Luigi's Mansion was and Super Mario Sunshine was in my opinion, the worst SMB adventure game in the series' history. But I guess at least then games actually had respectable and lengthy single player campaigns when compared to todays miserable efforts, despite the gamecube had so much less disc capacity to play with. And the wavebird controller...that thing is unbelieveably efficient on batteries. No rumble function but ever since buying one, I never, ever missed it.

The Xbo was hugely overpriced when it was released (but we all know that), some bundles over here were topping £500. It did have me completely sold from day one however, and although I couldn't afford to buy one at the time, I was over my friends' house all the time playing the only shooter that could tear anyone away from Goldeneye. And with the advent of XBL a year later, it blew the multiplayer aspect of the competition completely out of the water.

But if I had to choose one last-gen games console, I'd pick the gamecube any day of the week, no question.

Gamecube

.....

Interesting read. Yeah the PS2 put boots to asses last gen, but the GC and Xbox both had some solid offerings and the games looked better. I mean RE4 on the GC vs the PS2 is a no contest. Ninja Gaiden, Wind Waker, Melee, Chaos Theory, Metroid Prime, the final days of gaming's "purity"

SSBM :-)

Man dont forget super smash bros melee, that game was one of the best/last proper split screen games...I cannot count the hours of fun I got from that!

Resi 4 was another great GC title, it scared the living S**t out of me....the atmosphere set was enough!! Mario Sunshine, Wind waker ( Special edition with Ocarina included :-) ) Pikmin and metroid prime all kept me entertained for so long...I think I might break out the GC this weekend just talking about it! :-)

Metroid Prime 2 Graphics Vs. Halo 2 Graphics

Both games are beautiful in their own way, but I'm not sure a direct comparison is fair--Prime 2 featured much smaller areas to traverse and usually simpler enemies, while Halo often incorporated huge, realistic environments filled with many complex and intelligent adversaries (not to mention vehicles, allies, a physics engine, etc).

In other words, Metroid 2 might look as good as Halo 2 (and aesthetically, it's probably superior), but it's a superficial observation--if ported (well) to the Xbox, Prime 2 would have lost nothing in the conversion, but a Halo 2 port to the Cube probably would have seen a noticeable drop in quality.

Performance

I once did a side-by-side video comparison of the PS2, GC, Xbox and PC versions of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and was surprised by how nearly identical all four versions were. The devs did a ton of work to get almost exactly the same result out of four very different architectures. That said, Xbox exclusives did tend to perform better than Gamecube games.

Some Games. . .

. . .are designed to meet a certain minumum threshold of performance (i.e. the weakest system) so that the game can then be easily placed on each competing console with comparable quality. Prince of Persia is a good example of this philosophy, and you still see it today between many cross-platform titles, from Dead Space to Batman: Arkham Asylum.

But Halo 2 was designed from the ground up to make full use of the Xbox and its capabilities, and I doubt the game could have been easily ported to the Cube thereafter without some sacrifices to performance. The Xbox was the most powerful system of the era, after all.

Comparing and contrasting

I got both consoles years after they launched, so I marathoned the best of both their libraries in a couple years with Gamefly. Good times!

It's worth recalling that in many ways the Xbox 360 was just as much inspired by the Gamecube as by the original Xbox. The 360 ditched the Xbox's PC chipset for more efficient silicon from Gamecube's suppliers, and, like how Gamecube tried to compete against PS2, the 360 went for a one-third lower price tag than PS3 by leaving out features unessential to gaming, such as blu-ray. What's interesting is that since the HD era made everything more expensive, the very same tradeoffs for minimalism that made Gamecube underwhelming made Xbox 360 feel like the right product for the right price.

Huh

I agree with most of what you have to say but xbox was in that HD market. Yea it did not have blu-ray but it had HD DVD. Remember when they there was the big thing on which would be the new crisp way to watch movies. Well HD DVD lost to blu-ray which meant xbox picked wrong on new technology. I am sure that is one the Microsoft wants back.

Ok...

The Xbox came out before the PS3 and the 360 was truly designed around 720P which at the time there two competing HD resolutions. There still are, but 1080P seems to be the limit. MS could have gone with one format or the other, but maybe they did not due to cost as opposed to a format war. You think about this: no matter who lost or won the format war, the discs could have still been used to game storage. Even HD-DVD discs for games would be better than plain old DVD for the 360.

Doom on Xbox is worth a mention

After years of happily making do with a PS2, it was Doom and Halo which got me to finally spring for a (used) Xbox. After finishing those games the Xbox expired (it was worth it for those two series tho) meanwhile my heavily used PS2 still works to this day. When early reports came out of serious hardware problems for the 360 I held off for the PS3 and this difference in reliability is, unfortunately for Microsoft, another legacy which actually grew worse from the time of the original Xbox.

Ah, those were the days...

...this was probably my favorite of games and consoles. The Ads played a critical part too, ranging from hilarious to seriously cringing. and reading reviews on EGM to make my final decision to make a purchase. Playing these systems were fun. Thanks you two.

EGM!

The Gamecube

To me, that's probably my most favorite system ever cause it was like that kid at school who always get's picked on, get's made fun of but does things no one would expect, enter the Gamecube. Sure it's design looks kiddie and some would say the controller looks like well weird but better than the n64 controllers right? I was in that spot back then, always getting picked on but not by the usual crap but by the games I played, or rather owning a Gamecube when everyone at school had a PS2 and an XBox, I was the only one with a GCN. I got pickied on for it but did the GCN had alot of good or great 1st party games.

You had Luigi's Mansion (short but fun game) Starwars Rogue Squadron 2( I think I misspelled a word, but it was a really good looking game and it was a real blast) Super Mario Sunshine (not everyones favorite but still fun) Metroid Prine 1&2, Windwaker (which was really awesome) F-Zero GX (probably the most hardest game I ever played) Kirby's Air Ride (really fun racing game) Wario World (short but really good platformer) Mario Kart Double Dash (the only one I think that truly inovated the series) Twilight Princess (this one is tied with WW for me as my most fave, and the GCN is the best of the 2 versions) Pikmin 1&2 which were new IP's at the time, and Super Smash Bros Melee, obviously the best mp game on the Gamecube.

And I never played too many 3rd party games on it but Sonic Adventure 2 Battle was really good imo, Soul Calibur 2's GCN version was my favorite of the 3, but other than that, it had some (while little) 3rd party support. And I even had those cables for the GBA to GCN connectivity, hey I had to get those exclusive pokemon from the console pokemon games to the handheld ones lol And the controller, it's the only controller that felt confortable to me and it's my most favorite controller ever. I broke 5 of them in that era lol I love the Gamecube and always will cause not only for an era were my live took a turn for the worst but for providing me with games that were really great and helped me escape life and got me out of a slump.

Aw shucks! I'll say it then ...

That was cool

I still remember having the Gameboy Player and my GCN hooked up to my fat(CRT) 34" Widescreen Panasonic HDTV back in the day. Those were some good times playing Golden Sun, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, etc. on a big screen as opposed to on the tiny GBA screen.

Project X

was the Codename for NUON back in the very very early dreamcast hype days (when the controllers were red, "SEGA" didn't appear on the console at all, the pause buttons were cylindrical, and the VMU's were green :) :) ), not for XBOX, AFAIK.

This was before NUON was planned to be just an enhanced dvd player. I remember reading an article in next-gen about how they were abandoning poly-counts in favor of beefing up particle and ray-tracing effects to get realism in graphics. Neat!

Gamecube......

I loved the gamecube. Possibly my favorite console ever. The controller was unique and was incredibly comfortable. Sure 3rd parties weren't so favorable of it, but the few that were generally made great games. Nintendo had an amazing 1st party line up as well. I resent the statement that its childish, the fact that gamecube is remembered fondly by only hardcore Nintendo fans proves it. It wasn't perfect, but it was amazing.

You are right

The gameCube was ridiculized but it is the system with the best controller, not functionally but when it comes to comfort this little dude wins my heart. And the fact that most third arty games will not sell in GC proves that you have to be great when you launch on a Nintendo console. As you pointed out, the games that sold were great ones, third or first party.

So, I still play Monkey Ball, Rouge Leader and Papar Mario. As well as Cubivore. I like the way Nintendo manages to charm even when they are not the strongest sales in the market.

Nice Retrospective

Good article; it's nice to see some nuanced approach to the legacy of older systems as they affect the design ethos and software library of current-gen offerings. It's fun to remember some of the high points of those systems and what made them interesting (or occasionally infuriating).

The Gamecube controller

The flaw of the controller certainly was not ergonomics. Heck, it was the most comfortable controller of the generation. No, the problem lay in the unorthodox asymmetrical kidney shape face button arrangement and small d-pad. It did however inspire Nintendo to tie up the loose ends with the Classic Controller

The system's biggest achievement was the Wavebird, the very first successful wireless controller. A little shocked that didn't show up in this feature, since that was actually the one common thread this past generation.

Title of Comment

You're completely right, the gamecube controller was the most comfortable ergonomically but that button layout was ridiculous. The A button was needlessly enourmous while the Z button was really akward to use.

Agreed. . .

I still miss the feel of the Cube controller and use it whenever I can on the Wii. It's just the shape and placement of a couple of buttons, plus the odd second analog stick, that hold it back from complete greatness.

The button layout was the best part...

It was designed so you could distiguish the buttons by feel. The standard SNES diamond layout that most controllers use annoys me. I can never tell the damn face buttons appart. Some games were just designed perfectly around that controller, like RE4 and the Rouge Squadron games.

Liked the button layout

I at first didn't like the button layout but I grew to like it better. As someone said it was easy to distinguish between the buttons. Not good for fighting games I supose. Great for Mario and Zelda style game.

Same here

Man I truly hated the Xbox for a while. Which is funny considering that now I play on the 360 the most. But to me the GC always has a special place in my heart. I liked its design and how the damn thing just wouldn't die.